Skip to main content

The Modal Logic of John Fabri of Valenciennes (c. 1500)

A Study in Token-Based Semantics

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

  • The first monograph to cover issues in modal logic at the eve of the Renaissance
  • An important contribution towards a history of philosophy without any gaps
  • The first study to interpret post-medieval debates on modal logic against the backdrop of the Wegestreit

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Philosophy (BRIEFSPHILOSOPH)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

eBook USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (8 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

The first book-length study to address issues in modal logic at the eve of the Renaissance, this monograph provides important new insights into the way the debates on modal logic during the post-medieval period tied in with the so-called Wegestreit, the divide between the via antiqua and via moderna that dominated the discourse on logic during the 15th and early 16th centuries. The focus of the book is on the logic and philosophy of language of John Fabri of Valenciennes (fl. c. 1500), one of the last exponents of the terminist approach to logic that was bitterly criticized by the humanist movement. By means of a careful reconstruction of Fabri’s text, the book argues that Fabri's modal logic ultimately goes back to the work of John Buridan, and represents the same approach to the topic as the modal logics that were developed by adherents of the via moderna in Paris. This has significant implications for the historiography of post-medieval philosophy. Fabri was active in Louvain, which until the late 16th century was the most important intellectual center in the Low Countries. According to a long-standing tradition in the scholarship, Louvain was one of the few bulwarks of via antiqua logic on the map of post-medieval Europe. The book argues that this thesis is at least in part a scholarly fiction, and thus in need of revision. By shedding light on an author whose thought has thus far remained entirely unstudied, it also constitutes a valuable step towards a history of philosophy without any gaps. The book is aimed at graduate students and researchers in the history of logic and philosophy, but will also be of interest to intellectual historians, historians of ideas, and to any contemporary modal logician who is interested in the historical roots of their discipline.

Authors and Affiliations

  • FWO/Research Foundation Flanders, KU Leuven – Institute of Philosophy, Leuven, Belgium

    Christophe Geudens

  • KU Leuven – Institute of Philosophy, Leuven, Belgium

    Lorenz Demey

About the authors

Christophe Geudens is a Junior Research Fellow at the FWO/Research Foundation Flanders and KU Leuven, specializing in the history of modal logic and logical geometry. He holds a Masters in linguistics and a PhD in the history of logic (both from KU Leuven), and he is an Honorary Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation (BAEF). He has published in venues such as Argumentation, History and Philosophy of Logic, Vivarium, and Historiographia Linguistica.

Lorenz Demey is a Research Professor at KU Leuven, specializing in logical geometry and the history of modal logic. He studied philosophy, mathematics, logic and artificial intelligence in Leuven and Amsterdam. In 2020 he received the Frans Van Cauwelaert Prize from the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium (KVAB). He has published in venues such as Journal of Philosophical Logic, Synthese, and History and Philosophy of Logic. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Modal Logic of John Fabri of Valenciennes (c. 1500)

  • Book Subtitle: A Study in Token-Based Semantics

  • Authors: Christophe Geudens, Lorenz Demey

  • Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Philosophy

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98802-9

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-98801-2Published: 04 May 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-98802-9Published: 03 May 2022

  • Series ISSN: 2211-4548

  • Series E-ISSN: 2211-4556

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VI, 113

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: History of Philosophy, Logic, History of Science, History of Mathematical Sciences

Publish with us